Day: January 20, 2018

Blockchain has become the latest buzzword in the technology industry, but many people are still in the dark about just what exactly it means. Thanks to Raine Revere, we have a bit of a better grasp on what the blockchain entails as well as some of its implications.

As Revere so eloquently put it, “blockchain is a technology that allows for peer to peer transactions,” she explained on CTRL+T. With the blockchain, instead of relying on a company, a bank, the government or some other third-party to keep your data safe, you rely on cryptography behinds the scene to transact person-to-person.’

“So there’s less risk of your data being made insecure and there’s also reduced costs for the end user in a well-designed peer to peer system because you’re not paying thee middlemen to keep your data safe and handle all the coordination of transactions,” Revere said.

Later in the conversation, Revere discusses the need to ensure the blockchain industry is diverse. That’s partly whatread more

CarPlay will be free for the first year, then cost $80 a year to continue the service. At the Detroit Auto Show, BMW technology product manager Don Smith explained that there’s actually a customer benefit to doing it this way. “This allows the customer to switch devices. A lot of people buy [CarPlay] and think it’s OK, but sometimes they stop using it or switch to Android.” If a customer decided to keep the service over the course of a three-year lease, they would end up paying less than the one-time cost of $300, as the first three years would cost just $160. Four would cost $240.

Autoblog reached out to BMW, and a spokesperson confirmed the details for the U.S. market, reiterating the benefit to lessees.

Australian Birds of Prey Are Deliberately Setting Forests On Fire
Published on January 20, 2018 at 11:04PM
An anonymous reader writes: If you’ve been counting the ways the Australian environment is trying to kill you, you can now add “arson” to the list. According to a six-year study published in The Journal of Ethnobiology, observers have confirmed what Aboriginal rangers have been observing for years: birds of prey routinely carry burning or smouldering sticks into dry grassy areas to scare small mammals into fleeing so they can be pack-hunted more effectively. This has implications for environmental management, since the best firebreak will not protect your controlled burn from a “firehawk” determined to breach it.

"It's the first sign of greed since the Great Recession," Chiavarone said this week on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "It's indicative of rising risk appetites which will drive equity markets higher almost regardless of what happens with bitcoin." Bitcoin is such a contentious emerging asset, Chiavarone recently felt … social experiment by Livio Acerbo #greengroundit